Hello anyone and everyone!

Thought I'd share with you all a nightmare that my ex and I are going through at the moment.

We are both being sued by our ex-Landlords to the tune of almost 5k, for 'dilapidations' to the property upon our vacation at end of tenancy.

The case has been hanging over my head like grey grey cloud for the past year and we finally have a court hearing for next month.

Amongst the catalogue of stuff they are claiming for, the main context of it is in actual fact repairs outstanding from when we were tenants. Paying our rent and carrying on our busy lives whilst reporting and reporting and waiting and waiting for someone to come and repair faults such as:

*the big black hole in the hall ceiling from where the shower had been leaking since the house was built and still continued to leak in another spot down an electrical light pendant

*the damage caused by the plumber who fixed the first shower leak

*the leaky plumbing in kitchen

*the faulty fridge

*the boiler that work intermittently and when it does work it clanks like a steam engine on superheat

*various, mysterious leaks from plumbing in bathroom and hot water tank making tidemarks and mould patches on kitchen ceiling

*there's more but I really can't be bothered to continue listing leaks and disrepairs that not only did I have to suffer as a tenant but still continue to haunt me now

They are also suing (as they are fully entitled to) for the last month's unpaid rent, which in any other circumstances I would have remitted the £575.00. However, once I realised how dirty they were playing I decided I wasn't going to take this lying down. They still have a £500 deposit that, while they admit they still hold, to date they have not deducted from the amount they are suing for. I don't know why.

I am claiming off-set and compensation (up to the value of the outstanding rent and anything the Judge may deem me liable for) for inconvenience and loss attributed by many factors. This mainly includes incidences as a result of the Landlord's breach of contract. Namely failing to meet their obligations under clause 10.1 (d), which is basically to keep the property in good state of repair.

There was also a whole week in November 2004 where my children and I had no heat or hot water when the boiler completely packed up after six months of futile attempts of various plumbers trying to repair it. Consequently, I was out of pocket, having no alternative than to purchase an electric heater and radiator to keep the kids warm and the very very expensive electricity bill from having boiled the kettle 40 times a day to get hot water to wash with.

Also, I'm claiming loss and inconvenience for some personal possessions of mine that were unwittingly left at the property, of which they refused me access to collect. Then, they sue me for having to dispose of such items. Then, they deny there were such items and deny that they refused me access. Yet they still continue to include an undefined amount for the removal and disposal of my belongings in their claim. If this whole drama wasn't so unbelievably stressful (for me) it would actually make a good comedy, if written the right way...

In their claim they demand costs of redecorating and recarpeting the whole house. They say I was not allowed to paint the walls as per the last tenancy agreement. This is correct according the critical tenancy agreement, the one they base their claim on.

However, nobody seems to remember that I had been a tenant for five years and any decorating I did was done long before I signed the final year's tenancy agreement, and all previous agreements allowed me to decorate. Their 'piece de resistance' appears to be the clause that requires me to leave the property "in a state that corresponds to that at the commencement of the tenancy." This tenancy agreement began four years into my being a tenant.

Well. Fair wear and tear taken aside, I left the property in precisely the same state it was in at the commencement of the tenancy agreement, four years worth of decoration, redecoration, wear and tear, and outstanding repairs included! No inventory was carried out before this agreement was signed by me, my ex or the Landlords. But, given that they are using an inventory that was prepared in 1999 before I moved in as their basis for comparison, no wonder we have inconsistencies...

As to the carpet, somehow red paid spilled onto carpet inside the wardrobe. Consequently, they want me to pay for a brand new carpet to the whole of the house. Yes, I maybe liable to bear the cost of replacing that no-bigger-than-2-sqm patch of carpet. I am not liable to pay the cost of a brand new carpet (!) to replace the original ten-year-old carpet (!) and neither am I. They claim to have deducted a figure for fair wear and tear but nothing to that effect is detailed in their court bundle.

They claim to have allowed for fair wear and tear in every aspect of the dilapidations they claim for. Again, no figures are present. The small allowance they have made was a sum of £270.00 that they deducted from the original amount of their claim after they had been served the Defences. They decided that they were liable for the £25.00 cost of replacing silicone sealant around a washbasin and window, the £45.00 cost of replacing the pendant light fitting that the shower had leaked down and the £200.00 cost of repairing the said leak from the shower.

Anyway, on we plough. It's turned out that the Landlord's company I'm dealing with is a complex network of limited companies that are managed by another company but that company still owns them, or are the "owning vehicles of asset's of..." etc. etc.

So basically, they are huge. Maybe I should have been frightened off at the first court hearing, where I was briefly shown a breakdown of the Claimant's costs for that hearing (in excess of £900.00) and was warned that this would get expensive and that I should back down now. The Judge ruled no costs at that hearing so I must be getting somewhere.

I will not back down. Some idiot f**cked up somewhere and I'm not paying 5k out of money I need for my kid's future for the next six years, and with a CCJ!

Anyway, I believe that I have already paid for the cost of those repairs. In the thirty one thousand, eight hundred and twenty five pounds of rent that they got out of my ex and I over four years and eleven months.

From the first Claim, submitting applications asking the court for amended particulars of claim (since the first were so vague), chasing the court to obtain copies of documents that the Claimants failed to serve me with on two occasions, filing and serving Defences, Allocation Questionnaires and, finally, to the Disclosure of documents; the last year has been... hard work and unbelievably stressful.

The number of flaws there are in this case, mostly on their part, (I wish I could say I'm perfect but I'm not. I did get the odd date wrong) are laughable. I will quite happily describe them to you if you really wanna know.

What I am really trying to say to anyone in this or a similar situation is, don't back down! They are big. They are scary. But they are trying to take money from you that they are not entitled to. Money they have already received in extortionate amounts of rent charged.

I've still got to face it out in court and I am crapping myself. All I can hope is that the Judge is a fan of (and holds the same principles as) Judge John Deed...

Wish me luck!

Good Luck!!

We haven't been in that extreme situation, but my ex-landlady was a devil and the state agents even more evil. Hopefully we only stayed to 7 months, but in the last two we have to get solicitors involved as she didn't want to spend any money in the repairs which we pointed out they were needing to be sorted out before we moved and they weren't. The last straw was receiving the visit of bailiffs from the National debt collectors looking for her and have to probe them I was not the lady in question...

My best wishes...

Hi Severstar, just make sure you get all your evidence together before going to court. Have you got the requests for the repairs in writing or any photos of the way the house was left or an inventory setting out various aspects of the property when you became tenants. We had this problem about 4 years ago when they wouldn't refund our deposit having been good tenants for 10 years. We like you had had endless problems with leaks, slowness in repairing and shoddy workmanship. I took photographs of every room. The upshot was they counter-claimed for more money but we went to court anyway. One of things they fell down on was the carpet as this was considered general wear and tear (it was crap quality to be honest)and also they were supposed to supply us with information on interest accrued on our deposit which had been held in their bank account. They also tried to claim that they had a void period between tenants because of work needing doing but we were able to prove that in fact the house had been sold in the meantime with the so-called problems unfixed by the landlord, I had even written to the new owners asking for their help with which they were only too happy to oblige as the property had been left empty and deteriorating and the first thing they were met with was water pouring down the stairs from a leak in the cistern, ha ha they were gutted and had to pay up and got a telling off from the magistrate who was himself a landlord. Good luck, don't indulge in slanging matches just present cold hard facts.

Severstar, sounds like you got even worse service than I did from my landlords. When we had problems, it usually took about half a dozen phone calls and anything up to three months to sort out. When we complained about mould in the bathroom, they simply sprayed some mould-killer on and painted over it. Eventually they got a proper workman in who tiled it, took one look at the shower curtain rail they'd put up and told me he'd replace it (he did, with a very nice one). Mind you, he also left lumps of grout on the sink. When we complained that the whole 3-bed flat had only a gas fire in the living room to heat it, they "solved" the problem by giving us a load of fan heaters. On top of that, there were a load of defunct gas fireplaces, which were still open to the chimney. When we asked about them maybe covering them over for us, they told us that it'd be a health and safety thing. They fell mysteriously silent when I pointed out that there were laws about energy efficiency where landlords were concerned now. When we got our own decent fridge-freezer (ie, one that actually held more than a week's food and didn't frost up so badly that you needed an ice-pick to get anything out of the freezer section), they told us that they couldn't take away their old one, because they had no storage space for it.

So just out of interest, this "complex network of limited companies that are managed by another company but that company still owns them, or are the "owning vehicles of asset's of..." etc. etc." Isn't the "Street Group of Companies" is it?

I noted your comments about boiler repairs. As a tenant you should have a collection of Landlord certificates for each year you where a tenant in the premesis and this is a legal requirement of teh landlord who ever they are to insure your safety. Failure to do this is a High Court offence carrying five years or £5000 fine of each time.

Load your cannon with this and put a shot across there bow. You also said the plumbers could not fix the applaince, where they CORGI registered and suitably qualified to do the work?

If someone turns up to fix a gas applaince don't let them in unless they can produce their CORGI card with their photograph, Name and check the date is valid and most of all check the back to see they are qualified for the applaince they are going to work on.

If you don't do this you could wind up DEAD!

The Gasman

Go see www.corgi-gas.co.uk Landlords responsibilities.

Please help!

I am being sued by my landlord (he hasn't quite started proceedings yet but will do in the next few days) for five months rent. I owe him three and he also has a 6 week deposit.

What happened is that I had some problems with my accounts and the rent didn't go out when it should have done. This happened perhaps twice, once I also made a cash payment for which I cannot find a receipt. Great stuff.

Either way, he now wants me to pay him £6500 pounds within ca 48h or else court case. There is no way of my finding this money and also I cannot agree with that sum as it potentially is only two months but he wants five months rent.

My question now is where I stand legally as our contract ran out in December last year, I requested a new contract but they didn't respond and nothing was done.

This means that I have been living here without a contract for the past five months, does that make me a squatter? If he pursues me, what contract can he pursue me for? Or would it be difficult to pursue as there is no contract.

I am paying the rent whenever I get paid so for example I paid him for this month, and I have also paid other months whilst not having a contract.

Should I seek legal adviced myself, or just up and leave as a squatter?

If anybody could please help, I have no idea what to do when he takes me to court and I cannot get £6,5K together at the drop of a hat.

Many thanks

moods; breathe in ....aaaand out....in.......and slowly out.

OK.

Your landlord did not get you to sign a new contract- this means that your tenancy is now called "periodic". You are "legal", you are nt a squatter. Your landlord still needs to give you notice. check this post for info on notice in periodic tenancies: http://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk/forum/landlords-tenants/80580-notice-when.html#post740260

Next; I am a little bit confused about the amount you owe. I do know however that the landlord has to prove what you owe, exactly, since when etc. If he decided to pursue you through the courts, you wouldn't have to pay it all at once at all. You do not probably want end up with a court judgement. I am not an expert on debt in county court procedures but I sure someone will coe along shortly who could help and advise on how to organise repayments of what you truly own without ending up with CCJ.

posted twice by mistake....dopey

Hi Joa,

Thanks for that! Breathing is an essential that it is oh so easy to forget...especially in circumstances like these.

I will write them a letter and try to get the landlord to calm down, but either they are hellbent on just suing for the sake of it or they have some other motive behind the whole thing as it seems they want me to pay all of it now or the courts.

I already said that whether they take me to court or not is ultimately irrelevant as I cannot pay the amount in full anyway.

Your help is much appreciated and I guess I'll have to deal witht them as we go. I am wondering though, if he is so hellbent on suing as I am moving out on Monday, he did give me one month's notice which is up on tuesday.

Is it a case of him having to start proceedings before I vacate the premises?

Cheers!

As it is often stated on this forum, in order to evict you, the landlor has to have a court order. He cannot "ambush" you- he will have to serve a notice (as per the post i referred you to earlier). if you wish to leave earlier, you can, but you need to give him a notice too, as your tenancy is now without the "end" date.

If the landlord has to go to court, you will be liable for his costs.

From now on, make sure that each rent payment is recorded properly. As for the payments you have made but have no records for, try to find some circumstantial evidence (better then nothing) like large bank withdrawal, witnesses etc.